60 DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETr. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1861. 



The President in the Chair. 



The previous Minutes having been read, were signed. 



Alfred Newton, M. A., Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 F. L. S., &c., read the following paper : — 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE SNOWY OWL {N'l/ctea niveci) in the county of 

 Mayo. 



As the snowy owl is stated by the late Mr. William Thompson, in 

 his admirable work on the " Birds of Ireland" (i. p. 95), to be " a very 

 rare winter visitant" in that country, a record of the capture of one 

 which I lately had the pleasure of seeing, may not be unacceptable to 

 the Members of the Dublin JSTatural History Society. The bird I speak 

 of was obtained at Ballycovey, in the County Mayo, on the estate of 

 Mr. George Clive, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, 

 and, as far as I could ascertain, somewhat late in the autumn of 1859. 

 "When first observed, it was sitting on a bog, and was approached with- 

 out difficulty. The man who found it had no idea what it might be, and 

 shot at it, wounding it slightly, but sufficiently to enable him to catch it 

 alive. It soon recovered from the injury, and lived contentedly in a roomy 

 cage until the beginning of October last, when, at my suggestion, Mr. 

 Clive presented it to the Zoological Society of London, in whose gardens 

 I saw it a week or two since, enjoying the society of a fellow-prisoner of 

 its own species, which was obtained in Unst, the northernmost of the 

 British islands, and which has been for many years in the Society's pos- 

 session. I was told by the man who looked after Mr. Clive's bird, that 

 it moulted its feathers towards the end of the summer ; and it certainly 

 was in beautiful plumage when I saw it at Ballycovey, the last week in 

 September. I may perhaps be permitted to add that, as far as my own 

 knowledge extends, we are without any certain information respecting 

 the change or changes of plumage in this species, and I believe that any 

 person who could furnish reliable facts bearing on the subject would be 

 doing good service to ornithology. 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1861. 

 The President in the Chair. 

 The previous Minutes having been read, were signed. 

 R. P. "Williams, M. R. I. A., read the following paper : — 



ON THE occurrence OF THE SPOON-BILL IN THE COUNTY OF CORK. 



In presenting to the Society these fine specimens of Platalea leucorodia, 

 or white spoonbiil, I am aware that I cannot add anything new to the 

 accounts akeady published in the several works on ornithology ,• but it 

 may, however, interest the Society to enter into some details as to the par- 



